Open to the public to watch, the event offers intensive competition, the dentist drill-like whine of tiny electric motors, sophisticated tools, and two-inch-long cars that exceed speeds of 35 feet per second.

The race track is said to be the world’s largest – at 10,000 square feet -- for slot car racing, with multiple courses for both the HO and larger 1/24th-scale racers.

LenJet/Modelville Hobby will host nine separate car class competitions, six of which will determine a new national champion.

Slot car racing was an enormously popular hobby/sport in the late 1960s and early 1970s, representing hundreds of millions of dollars of economic activity, and seen on the main streets of nearly every medium-to-large community in the United States.

Though its popularity today is a fraction of its peak, slot cars remain a vital and exciting hobby for thousands of people across the country, many of whom first raced the cars with their parents, when they were children.

The event will feature:

• Racers from more than 20 states are expected to compete, from as far away as Washington, Oregon and Arizona. Several manufacturers of the racecars’ parts will be in attendance as well.

• Computerized race management systems time the cars’ laps to a thousandth of a second, keep lap totals for dozens of competitors, and provide some timing and race updates remotely, in real time, via the web.

• High-tech tools such as dynamometers, gaussmeters, pressure gauges, and infrared thermometers are used to maximize the performance of the tiny missiles. Key dimensions, critical to their performance, are routinely measured in thousandths of an inch.

• In addition to bragging rights, the experienced “pro” racers will run for trophies and cash prizes of up to $250. Amateurs? Trophies and bragging rights.

The action is free and open to the public, and spectators are encouraged to attend, daily from 8:00 am to 9:00 pm.